


In a Blink

by LigerCat



Category: Milo Murphy's Law, Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Accidental Time Travel, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Brotherly Angst, Episode AU: s04e29-e30 Night of the Living Pharmacists, Except Phineas, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Identity Reveal, Implied Sexual Content, Mild Gore, Mild Language, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Missing Persons, Not Really Character Death, Resistance, Saving the World, Search for a Cure, Teenagers, Time Travel, or trying
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2020-06-24 05:13:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19716913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LigerCat/pseuds/LigerCat
Summary: Phineas Flynn disappeared on his tenth birthday.Within the same summer, the world fell to pieces.For those who survived, it was ten years before Phineas came back.For Phineas... it was only a second.





	1. Chapter 1

Phineas rubbed his head. He'd been about to head home when pain suddenly spiked through his brain.

It was starting to subside, and Phineas pried his eyes open expecting to see the bight, people filled street outside the Googolplex Mall parking lot.

Instead, an overcast sky shrouded the desolate street.

Phineas blinked. Everyone must have gone inside to get away from the coming rain. Except, while the clouds were heavy and dark, they didn't look like rain clouds.

Either way, he should get home. He didn't want to be late to his own party.

He didn't pay much attention to the world around him as walked. But no lights lit up his path, none shown from any building's windows, whether that window be broken or whole, no headlights cut through the shadows. But, in the end, it was the silence that drew his attention to the world around him.

Danville was not a quiet city. The spontaneous music numbers alone were consistent enough to give an inconstant level of background noise. But there even the sounds of traffic and talking were absent.

Coming to a stop, Phineas looked around. Finally taking in the rundown appearance of his surroundings.

"Hello?" Not getting a response, Phineas cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hello!"

The sound of something metal hitting the ground made him jump.

Pushing down his trepidation, Phineas started towards the alley it had come from. "Is someone there?" He didn't move farther in.

But something was moving in there. The shadows too dark to see it clearly.

A gut feeling told Phineas to run, but his curiosity routed him to the spot.

It slinked towards him before breaking out into the hint of light. Phineas gasped.

The deformed creature might have one been a monkey. But its head was malformed with a large, pointed chin. Its fur appeared to be falling out in places where it wasn't covered by the ragged remains of some sort of filthy shirt or coat.

Phineas stepped back. His curiosity replaced with a sinking fear. What had happened in the few seconds he'd been in pain?

A guttural sound that didn't fit monkey or human ripped itself from the creature's mouth, forming twisted, demonic words:

"Lots...of...me."


	2. Chapter 2

Phineas ran.

He didn't think about where he was running. As long as it was away from that thing, it was a good direction.

It followed.

It's unnatural chanting filled the silence, echoing. Then it wasn't echoing but repeated, as more voices joined in.

Human ones.

Phineas' heart pounded in his ears in sync with his feet on the sidewalk.

People pilled out onto the street. From alleys, buildings, some seemed to materialize out of thin air. They all wore the same tattered clothing. Their faces mirrored each other. As did their builds, their way of moving. Their everything.

"Lots of me." A hand shot out in front of his face.

Phineas ducked, barely missing it, as he continued to run.

The voices harmonized. Coming from everywhere. Phineas stopped. They were in front of him. Behind him. To the sides of him. Hundreds of them.

There was nowhere to run.

The herd approached, their dirt-caked hands outstretched.

Phineas scrabbled backward to get in the middle of the closing gap. "What do you want?"

The chant changed as one voice. "More of me."

While he might not understand just what was happening, or how it had happened, the pieces still started clicking together. And, even without knowing the how, Phineas had a feeling that he should not let them touch him.

Easier said than done. The roar of an engine cut through the chanting. A few of the copies turned and, near the end of the crowd, some were launched into the air.

Phineas flinched. He didn't know what exactly these things were, but that looked painful.

The rest stopped approaching as they continued to be knocked out of the way until it reached him. He stared at the Humvee.

The passenger door opened. "Get in!"

Behind him, the chant had started up again. Phineas ran and jumped in the truck. Anything had to be better than staying where he was. The truck shot forward before he slammed the door shut.

"I can't believe I actually found someone. It's been months, hell, years since we found someone new," the woman said.

Years? Phineas stared out the window. Bodies fly past blocking out most of the city blocks, but it certainly looked like it'd been abandoned for years. Which made no sense. Everything had been fine a little while ago.

"How...how long has this been going on?" He sat back in the seat. "What is going on?"

"You must have gotten caught pretty earlier on if you don't know." She turned down a side street. "This is-" She glanced at him and the words cut off. "Phineas?"

"Yeah?" Did he know her? Or had known her? He turned at her again. Not that it helped. She was dressed head to toe in form-fitting black, only her eyes were visible. It kinda looked like their ninja suits.

Her staring made Phineas uncomfortable. "Shouldn't you watch the road?"

"Yeah." Turning back to the road, she started laughing. "He's going to freak when he sees you."

"Who is?"

"You'll see."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to try to re-write the second half of this chapter, since the original second half is gone, but I couldn't remember what happened in it and decided to just wrap it up so I could try to move on with the plot.


	3. Chapter 3

Any followup questions Phineas had were lost as the Humvee plowed though another group of pharmacists. He closed his eyes to block out the sight of them hitting the windshield, but he could hear them. The truck rocked as it drove over other ones before breaking free of the horde.

He waited a few more minutes before opening his eyes. They were approaching a chain-link fence. It ran across the middle of the road and they were speeding towards it.

Doing all of that only to drive headfirst into a fence didn't make any sense, she was going to turn or stop on a dime or something. Phineas twisted the bottom of his shirt in his hands as got closer with no signs of stopping.

Just when he was starting to wonder if she really was going to drive them into it, a section of the fence vanished. He jerked forward in his seat, trying to see better. Did it move and he just didn't see it? It didn't seem like it.

Its vanishing wasn't impossible, but he didn't know many people who could pull that off, except for himself and... and Ferb. The driver's word hit him full force. Years. Whatever had happened to him, to Danville, was somehow years ago. What did that mean for Ferb? Was he okay? What about Candace? Their parents?

Isabella?

The truck finally stopped, but Phineas didn't move. They had to okay. Ferb, Candace, their friends, they were tough. They were survivors. He held onto the thought as he climbed out.

His rescuer was waiting for him by the small building enclosed by the fence. He barely glanced at it at first, but he only took a few steps before taking a second look. Phineas' eyes widen as his feet refused to move farther.

It was beaten up, boarded up, and looked like it needed some good TLC, but he'd know the place anywhere. The Fireside Girls Headquarters had always stood out, just like its members.

She must have gotten tired of waiting on him because the driver had knocked on the door and was talking to someone on the inside. When the door opened, she glanced back at him. "Phineas."

"Yeah." The word was barely more than a whisper as he forced his feet to move.

The place was empty. There was a chair positioned near the trap door and some sort of electrical plane set into the wall that hadn't been there last time he'd been here. The man there, dressed the same as his rescuer, locked the door behind them without a word.

Phineas let himself be led down the trap door and into an area he'd never been in before. Some part of him wanted to start talking about anything just to break the silence, but what if they were being quiet for a reason? He swallowed.

They passed through a door that blended perfectly with the surrounding wall and entered a long corridor filled with large, blocked off, glass tubes.

What was this place? Phineas turned in a complete circle, trying to find any clue to answer that, but the dim lighting that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once didn't let him see enough.

They followed the tubes to another door.

Even before he walked through, he could hear them. After the long silence, the voices were deafening. People, all different as they should be, talking, doing work, hurrying around the room. A group crowded around a giant computer on one side. Phineas glanced from person to person, his heart sunk with each look.

He didn't know anyone.

How could he not know anyone? He was constantly interacting with people in Danville. Half the city, if not more, had been to his home at least once over the summer.

There were doors leading off other places. Maybe he could find someone he knew there. Maybe he just had to try harder. Before he could run for it, a hand clamped down on his shoulder. He raised his head.

The black-clad woman stared back at him. "He's this way."

'Who is?' was on his lips, but now that he was here, he wasn't sure he wanted to know. What if it wasn't who he wanted it to be? Though, at this moment, even if it was Irving, he'd feel somewhat relieved to see someone he knew.

She brought him to yet another door. Giving his shoulder a squeeze, she said, "Wait here."

Phineas didn't want to wait. If his hopes were gonna be crushed, he'd rather get it over with quickly. And if they weren't gonna be crushed, that was even less reason to wait because it was another second they'd have to be apart. And maybe he hadn't been that long for him, but it still felt like forever.

The door didn't latch behind her. She was talking but it was just low enough that he couldn't make out the words. Or the name of who she was talking to.

His hand rested on the metal door for a second before he pushed it slightly. If it opened all the way, they'd see him, but if he could just get a glimpse...

She was facing away from him, leaning against a table. Phineas held his breath. Maybe he should've listened and just waited for her to come back out.

Then she moved, clearing his line of vision, and the breath rushed out of him in a gasp.

It must have been louder than he thought because he was spotted. Deep, painfully familiar, blue eyes stared into his.

No one moved.

_Years._

When she'd said he'd been gone years, he believed her, but, even seeing what Danville was like now, it hadn't really sunk in yet that years meant _years_. Now it hit him with all the force of a launched baseball.

Phineas scrambled backwards, eyes wide but still locked on the other pair. His vision blurred, and he blinked, breaking whatever spell held him there.

He turned and ran.

This was a dream. A nightmare. That's it. He'd hit his head on the sidewalk and none of this was happening outside his own mind. Though the situation was a bit weird, even for his imagination, that's all it was. His imagination. Being weird. Had he had too much sugar? Had he had _any_ sugar?

But what else could it be? Lots of strange things had happened over the summer. That summer? Their summer was long over if this wasn't a dream. They probably didn't have summers anymore because summers were good and pure and fun and everything this world wasn't so this couldn't be real.

He stopped running to wipe at his eyes. Tears had formed, but he wasn't crying. He wouldn't cry over a nightmare. He never did, not since he was littler.

Sitting down with his back pressed against the wall, he didn't want to be in anybody's way if someone happened to pass by, he pulled his legs to his chest and buried his face in his knees.

All he had to do now was wake up.


End file.
